Ski resorts in Africa

Inside the Mall of Egypt in Cairo, Ski Egypt is the only indoor snow slope on the African continent and the only way to ski in Egypt at all. A 100 m run, a single lift, snow guns, ice features and resident penguins, all kept at around -2 to -4 °C, three hundred and sixty-five days a year.

At 3050 m in the Maluti Mountains, Afriski is the highest ski base in Africa and the continent's only real Southern Hemisphere resort. One chairlift, one surface tow, a single well-groomed piste, and a southern winter that runs from June to August above Lesotho's roof.

Africa's headline ski resort sits 70 km south of Marrakech, where Berber villages cling to slopes and the Sahara shimmers far below. Lifts climb past 3,200 m with Mount Toubkal filling the horizon. Snow comes when it comes, but the experience is genuinely surreal.

Perched at 2510 m in the Eastern Cape Drakensberg, Tiffindell is South Africa's only proper ski resort, climbing to 2782 m at the country's snowiest summit. Closed for years and recently reborn, it offers one chairlift, a handful of trails and a Southern Hemisphere season that runs from late June to August.

Tucked into the limestone cathedrals of Djurdjura National Park, Tikjda is Algeria's window onto a snowy Atlas most travellers never imagine. A short drive from Algiers, it pairs Kabyle-Berber hospitality with a single lift, a stark summit, and a season that comes and goes with the cedars.

In the crater of an extinct volcano above Ifrane, Morocco's so-called Switzerland of cedar forests and colonial chalets, Mischliffen is a tiny ski circle that opens when winter cooperates. Two lifts, three kilometres of piste, and a Middle Atlas charm hard to find elsewhere.

Fifty kilometres south of Algiers, Chréa sits in the Atlas Blidéen above Blida, inside a national park where Barbary macaques still roam. Two lifts, a short season, and the rare thrill of skiing Mediterranean mountains within sight of the capital.

The most remote of Morocco's ski stations, Jbel Bou Iblane rises above Taza in the Eastern Middle Atlas. One lift, untouched cedar wilderness and a season often counted in days. Pure adventure terrain, not a weekend cruise.

Thirty kilometres west of Tikjda, Tala-Guilef is the quieter sibling of Algerian skiing: a single lift on a cedar-fringed slope, a base at 1450 m and a summit near 2000 m, open mostly for local weekenders when the snow decides to fall.

Tucked into the cedar forests near Azrou, Jbel Habri is a one-lift Middle Atlas micro-resort where Barbary macaques outnumber skiers. Snow is modest, the vibe is family weekend, and the surrounding woodland is the real headline.